was never identical with that of the Church of Rome, and that it always showed that it was in part an inheritance from the Church of Gaul, which had, in its turn, taken its form of Eucharistic worship from the East. At the time of the Reformation there was first added to the Latin form of Consecration an English form for the preparation of the communicants, and for administration to them; then a complete service was published in English (in 1549 A.D.), adding to the defective Roman form certain things from the ancient Liturgies, though not in the ancient order, together with certain others peculiar to itself; and then (in 1552 A.D.) the service was put into nearly its present shape, the form of the prayer of consecration being carried back more nearly into conformity with the Roman, in part, as it seems to the writer, from a feeling that a wrong order had been adopted three years before. The American Liturgy is taken almost exactly from that in the English Prayer-Book, with the important exception that the Prayer of Consecration follows the Scotch form, not that in the Scotch book of 1637 A.D., which never went into use, but that which was taken from primitive sources by the non-jurors in 1718 A.D., and which was borrowed from them by the Scotch Bishops.

These things being premised, the meaning of the several parts of the service may be readily seen. First, after this recital of the LORD'S Prayer, and the Collect for Purity as preparatory to the whole service, comes, as in the earliest days, the reading of Holy Scriptures. The lesson from the Old Testament (called in some services the Prophecy) is with us invariable throughout the year, consisting of the Ten Commandments, which also serves, a proper response being provided to lead to a confession of sin and a prayer for grace. The Epistles and the Gospel are two lessons from the two parts of the New Testament, and are read by us in accordance with a very ancient calendar, which the Church of Rome has confused, as she has almost everything else in the Liturgy. To these the Collects, most of which are also very ancient, serve as a fitting and devout introduction. The Creed is the profession of our Faith as based on the Scriptures, parts of which have just been read, and the Sermon is an explanation of them and an exhortation based upon them. The offering of alms shows our charity, corresponding to the kiss of peace; and the offering of bread and wine is like the ancient presentation of the first fruits of the earth. The Prayer for the Church Militant is our great Intercession, keeping the position which it had in the old Liturgy of Gaul, and reminding us that English Christianity came in part from the East, and very probably from Ephesus and from St. John. The Exhortation is a continuation of the Sermon, having for its purpose to begin the special preparation of the people for receiving the Holy Sacrament.

It leads to the Invitation, which is followed most naturally, we may say necessarily, by a humble Confession of sins and an Absolution, the latter having its most solemn form

that of a prayer. The Comfortable Words which follow are peculiar to our office and to those from which it was taken, and are in a translation made (it is thought) by Archbishop Cranmer expressly for the first English Prayer-Book; they serve to confirm the faith of the worshipers in GoD's promises of pardon. Then comes a form of words which can be traced back to the very earliest days, brief versicles and responses preparing the way for the Angelic or Triumphal Hymn (it is not strictly correct to call this the Trisagion); and in certain days the form of thanksgiving is made longer and adapted to the special commemoration, our number of proper prefaces being, however, probably owing to Roman influences, very small. The Prayer of Humble Access comes in as a parenthesis, though very suitably, between the Triumphal Hymn and the lofty strain of praise with which the Prayer of Consecration begins (which, by the way, first appears in the Scotch service of 1764 A.D.). The essential parts of this prayer are, through GoD's good providence, in their proper order, in our book, as they were in every ancient Liturgy, as they are to-day in those of the Greek Church, and as so many of the earnest divines of the Church of England have wished that they might be in hers. The Words of Institution are followed by an Oblation of the elements to GOD, as a memorial of the one sacrifice of CHRIST; and after it is the Invocation of the HOLY SPIRIT, which completes the Consecration. But the prayer goes on with a brief intercession, which reminds us of that in the Greek Liturgy, an offering of the souls and the bodies of the worshipers to GOD, a prayer that their sins may not prevent the acceptance of their worship, and a doxology, which latter is prolonged and echoed in a hymn. Then comes the administration in both kinds, according to CHRIST'S institution. The Post-Communion, as it is called, is more elaborate in our offices than in almost any other. It includes the LORD'S Prayer as offered by those who have now renewed their covenant with GOD, a prayer of Thanksgiving, the venerable Gloria in Excelsis, and the Blessing of Peace. No other service than the English and our own has the LORD's Prayer in this part of the service, all others placing it before the Communion. The other peculiarities of our Liturgy, which we share with those from which it is derived, are the Comfortable Words (a peculiarity of which we have no need to be ashamed), and the position of the Gloria in Excelsis; and in regard to the lat ter, though there are reasons for placing it as the Hymn of the Incarnation, at the beginning of the offices, as in the English service of 1549 A.D., use seems to commend its present position very strongly. The place

of the Prayer of Humble Access in our books, as to which we follow the English, makes a break in the strain of thanksgiving, which is not found in the ancient offices; but it is, as has been said, of the nature of a parenthesis, and most fittingly expresses the feeling of humility with which we take upon our lips the praises of GOD.

It does not come within the scope of this article to speak of the rubrics of the service or of the doctrines of the Eucharist.

Authorities: Hammond's Liturgies, Eastern and Western; Keeling's Liturge Britannica, Freeman's Principles of Divine Service, Marshall's Ancient Liturgies of the Church of England, Hall's Fragmenta Liturgica. REV. PROF. S. HART. Communion in One Kind. The administration only of the bread and not the wine in the LORD's Supper. This practice, which is contrary to the express command, "Drink ye all," and to the continual usage of the Church everywhere else, has been the rule of the Roman Church for the last seven hundred years only.

Communion of Saints. The latter part of the IX. Article of the Creed. It forms a complement to the former part, the Holy Catholic Church, and serves to partly explain it. It was a later addition to this Article. It adds to and carries on the confession of the outer visible union with CHRIST in the Holy Catholic Church, and confesses the inner mystical union with Him. It is best understood in this connection with the first verses of the first Epistle general of St. John, and adds the doctrine of the union of all his saints living and departed, which is brought out so nobly in the eleventh and twelfth chapters of the Epistle to the Hebrews, especially in the 22d and 24th verses of the twelfth chapter, which form an inspired exposition of its true meaning in the Creed.

Communion-Table. The name synonymous with the altar in the Christian Church. The Order for the Holy Communion in the Prayer-Book calls it, as does the Greek Church, the Holy Table and the LORD'S Table, and so in the Ordinal. In the form for the Consecration of a Church or Chapel, which was compiled by the Bishops of this Church in 1799 A.D., the altar is called the Communion-Table. In the Office of Institution, framed in 1804 A.D. and revised in 1808 A.D., it is called Altar. It is both an altar and table, for as the place for offering the oblation of bread and wine it is an altar, and with respect to the feast it is a table. In the New Testament the use is indifferent in the few allusions made to it. Heb. xiii. 10: "We have an Altar whereof they have no right to eat which serve the Tabernacle." 1 Cor. x. 21: Ye cannot be partakers of the LORD'S Table and the table of devils," "where what was on the table of devils was from the altar of devils." And throughout table and altar are used indifferently. In strictness the table is the LORD's Table, the

Holy Table, not the Communicant's Table, so that the term Communion-Table is incorrect.

Compline, in the English Church, before the Reformation, was the last service of the day. When the two services of Morning and Evening Prayer were arranged, the services of the first hours were joined together to form the morning services, and the Vesper and Compline of the last hours were conjoined into a fixed form for the Evening Prayer. It was not intended that the public worship should interfere with the use of private prayer, an idea which has often been put forth, but she intended that the public worship should be common, and "understanded of the people.'

Conception. The truth of the conception of CHRIST by the operation of the HOLY GHOST is of fundamental importance to the Christian. Unless it be so, the ancient prophecy (Is. vii. 14) has failed, the records of the Evangelists St. Matthew and St. Mark are false, the first chapter of St. John meaningless, and our faith vain; not merely this, but the whole career of the Christian Church an effect without a cause, if CHRIST is not the pre-existing Eternal SON of GOD, of one substance with His FATHER, begotten of His FATHER before all worlds.

Conclave. A room that can be locked, then an assembly-room, and, lastly, the assembly itself, generally the assembly of Cardinals, and more especially that assembly convened for the purpose of electing a new Pope. Up to the eleventh century the people as well as the clergy had a voice in the election, but under the guidance, it is said, of Hildebrand, afterwards the famous Gregory VII., Pope Nicholas II. arranged that the Cardinals, i.e., the Presbyters of the Cardinal Churches, should hold the election to the exclusion of the rights of the other parties to the election, 1059 A.D. The election is conducted under certain very minute rules, the chief of which is the absolute seclusion of the Cardinals from all external communication.

Concomitance. The doctrine that in transubstantiation the Blood inheres in the Body in the Eucharist, and therefore that there is practically no withholding of the grace and value of the Cup in the Communion. This strange and erroneous doctrine was invented to parry the proofs that the Cup must by the New Testament rule be given to the laity in the administration of the LORD's Supper.

Concordance. (From concordare, to agree.) A dictionary and reference book of all the words which occur in an author. It is most generally applied to a verbal con-cordance of the Bible. There are many concordances, some of subjects (topical) and others of words (verbal), in the Hebrew, Greek (Septuagint), Latin (Vulgate), English, French, and German. Those in English claim our attention. The earlier concordances were quite defective, as they gave

but the leading words. But they were superseded by the great work of ALEXANDER CRUDEN (1737 A.D.). It is in many repects the completest, and is arranged in very convenient form. It was incomplete in proper names, but that has been supplied in late editions. The most ambitious, and in many respects the most exhaustive, concordance is the recent one by Dr. Young, of Edinburgh, 1879 A.D. It gives the Hebrew and Greek words. It arranges these by subjects under the separate use of each word, not merely as noun or verb, etc., but in its several senses. It is probably the most perfect concordance that can be prepared.

Concordat. An agreement between powers relative to some subject. This word is usually restrained to agreements made between the Papacy and the contracting power acknowledging the Roman obedience, and it will be found that very often it was entered into to prevent the government from asserting and enforcing the just independence of the national Church. Such is the history of at least one concordat in France, the Pragmatic sanction (1516 A.D.), under Francis I., who was in correspondence with Melancthon. A second concordat was formed between Napoleon I. and Pius VII., which, however, did not give anything to the Roman See. It is now in force, after having been abrogated in 1817 A.D. to give place to a vain effort to restore the concordat of 1516 A.D. The interval between these concordats is filled with most instructive history. So in Spain the liberties of the Church were secured in the concordat of 1762 A.D., but in 1851 A.D. another not so favorable was made. But Portugal is noted upon the Peninsula for the firmness with which it has defended the practical independence of the Portuguese Church. In Germany the efforts of Joseph II. produced a great deal of excitement, but the intervention of the French Revolution and the treatment Napoleon inflicted upon Pius VI. produced a reaction in favor of the Roman See, and concordats were formed with the several states of Germany more or less favorable to the Roman See. The most favorable one (Austria in 1855 A.D.), proved to be a failure; many provisions in it could not be carried out, and those which were worked unfavorable results politically, so that in 1870 A.D. it was abolished. The history of the concordats from 1516 A.D. to the present day is the history of the effort to reconcile the National Historical Independence of the several Churches of Europe with the desire to remain, for varying, and often narrow, political reasons, in the obedience

of the Roman See.

Condignity. A topic in the prereformation discussion as to the relation of works done before, and those under the gracious influences of GOD. Some works, it was held by some, could be done so well that thereby a man could deserve salvation (congruity). On the other hand it was contended that a man under only divine influence could

deserve eternal life (condignity). The error in each case was the insisting (whether wittingly or not) that man could deserve or merit eternal life. Compare the XIIIth of the Articles upon this.

Confession. A word used with a wide

signification and many applications. It means an acknowledgment of either an act or a belief, therefore it may be used to signify (a) The acknowledgment of any sin or sins. (b) The avowal of a belief. (c) The public documents containing such avowals which have been put forth with authority. It often is used simply as meaning auricular confession of sins to a priest.

The

Confession of Faith. The great Confession of Faith is made in the Creed. Church can recognize no other Confession of Faith, though documents bearing that title have been put forth, and the XXXIX. Articles of the English and American Churches are popularly so styled. It is really an error, though the XXXIX. Articles contain decisions upon theological points and protests upon errors in vogue at the time (1562 A.D.), and upon some points of Church Polity: The Confession of Faith is properly the one made at Baptism: "Dost thou believe all the Articles of the Christian Faith?" Anciently it was necessary to recite the Creed at that time. But this does not cover all that is now placed under this title. It refers now to those documents which were published during the first century of the Refor mation (and is made to include those since), containing declarations upon points of faith, protests against errors, or malpractices in religion, and assertions upon controverted or undetermined articles. The first and most notable of these is the Confession of Augsburg, presented to the Emperor Charles V. (June 25, 1530 A.D.) in full diet at Augsburg. It was read to the Diet in German, and made a very deep impression. This and its Defense (Apologia) against the attempted refutations of Eck, Cochlæus, and other Roman theologians have become one of the standard authorities of the Lutheran Communion. The Calvinistic Confession of Basle, which took shape from a speech by Ecolampadius 1531 A.D., and was written out by Myconius in 1534 A.D.; the Helvetic Confession of 1536 A. D., in Basle, to unify the Swiss Reformers; the Genevan Catechism, the work of Calvin, 1536 A D., takes rank as a confession,-are documents of this rank for the Calvinistic communion on the Continent; the Westminster Confession of Faith for the Presbyterians. These constitute only a very few of the many symbolic books,-i.e., collections of standard Confessions of Faith of the various religious bodies which receive them.

Confession of Sin. It is one of the essentials of repentance. "I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the LORD; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin" (Ps. xxxii. 5). It is, however, a question as to manner and before whom this confession of

sin is to be made. As to manner, it is to be complete and unreserved, so far as memory and conscience can render this confession; the Holy Scriptures are full of it, and so are the writings of all the best and holiest men of all times. This confession is to be unshrinking in owning the character and heinousness of sin. But before whom is this to be made? To GOD beyond a doubt; but David's confession, which was finally recorded so fully, and for all ages, in the 51st Psalm, was first before Nathan: "And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the LORD, and Nathan said unto David, The LORD also hath put away thy sin." Here we see confession before a Priest and absolution, but it is equally clear that it was open, and before all who were present in the Royal chamber, and that this was no secret confession, concealed, and never to be divulged. There is no example recorded of such auricular confession in the Bible; on the contrary, the most open and public acknowledgment of wrong-doing is urged, not only in the Psalms, the great Penitential authority for the Church, but also by the conduct of the Primitive Church during the first centuries, when she kept up her strict discipline (vide DISCIPLINE) in accordance with the precept of St. James: "Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another that ye may be healed." With these and other directions before us (St. Matt. iii. 6-8; Acts xxx. 18, 19), we may compare (not contrast) our LORD's commission in St. Matt. xvi. 19; xviii. 18; and most explicitly repeated in St. John IX. 23: "Receive ye the HOLY GHOST: whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained," made to the eleven Apostles, as a committal of His own authority as Son of Man to forgive sins. This in nowise conflicts with the public confession, nay, rather agrees with it. Indeed, while it was clearly recognized that there were cases in which it were better that there should be no public confession,--we are not speaking of the ordinary wearing fretfulness of daily occurrence,-yet these were few and of rare occurrence, and they were exceptional cases. But we have full and clear information as to this. In this line and upon the best precedents the Church has given her children the public confessions of sin she places in her public formularies. They are three: the one in the Morning and Evening Prayer, the one in the Communion service, and the Prayer in the Ash-Wednesday service. Other confessions, in phrase, not in form, occur in the Collects; but these are the outlines upon which the Church instructs her children to frame their self-examination and confession, and she looks for an honest and devout desire on their part to give a hearty meaning to the lowly words she puts into their mouths. The public use of forms of confession was not intended to interfere with

any private and devotional forms for the closet.

But while the Church thus publicly and openly avows her use of public confession, she does not interfere with the unburdening of the heart and its troubles to her ministers. Confession in private is urged upon the condemned convict in his cell, and at the close of the exhortation in the Communion service she uses these words: "And because it is requisite that no man should come to the Holy Communion but with a full trust in God's mercy, and with a quiet conscience, therefore, if there be any of you who by this means cannot quiet his own conscience herein, but requireth further comfort or counsel, let him come to me or to some other minister of GOD'S Word and open his grief, that he may receive such godly counsel and advice as may tend to the quieting of his conscience and the removing of all scruple and doubtfulness." So far she exhorts and advises the confidence which should ever exist between a faithful Priest and his people in any case of conscience or of scruple. The use of absolution under such cases must always be decided by the circumstances. (Vide ABSOLUTION.)

CONFESSION (AURICULAR), that is, confession into the ear of the Priest, who is bound to absolute secrecy, and who is at liberty to question the penitent in any way upon any part of his or her conduct. The practice arose upon the cessation of making public confession. and grew gradually till, after having been recognized by the Western Church, in several enactments of local Synods it was enjoined as a necessary preliminary to receiving the Communion and as obligatory on every one once a year on pain of excommunication, and therefore refusal of Christian burial. (IV. Council of Lateran, Can. 21, 1215 A.D.)

Confessor. One who at the risk of his life confesses his faith in CHRIST. For the use of the word, compare St. Matt. x. 32, and 1 Tim. vi. 13. The confessors were held in great esteem, and obtained so much influence that St. Cyprian, while admiring them and their constancy, had to oppose their ill-advised relaxations of the discipline of the lapsed. The title confessor properly belongs to him who at any time at the danger of his life because of it has confessed his faith in the LORD JESUS CHRIST.

Confessor. The title given to the Priest who hears confessions.

Confirmation. The imposition of the Bishop's hands, whereby the gift of the HOLY GHOST is given to the person confirmed; the strengthening of the soul by the graces of the SPIRIT. It bore several names in the works of the Fathers,-e.g., the Seal, the Chrism, the Imposition of Hands. The seal from Eph. iv. 30; the chrism from 1 John ii. 27; the imposition of hands from Heb. vi. 2. The term confirmation or strengthening appears to come from Eph. iii. 16. The rite without doubt was typified

by the descent of the HOLY SPIRIT upon Him at our LORD's baptism. He declared constantly that He came not only for the Redemptive acts which He alone could effect, but also to give the HOLY GHOST, which gift, including all other gifts in that, He gave to the Apostles when He breathed on them, and afterwards when at the day of Pentecost He sent Him upon the Apostles.

It was emphatically the Rite for that gift, as Baptism was the appointed Sacrament for our entrance and birth into CHRIST; so it was implied in St. Peter's words: " Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of JESUS CHRIST for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the HOLY GHOST. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, and to as many as the LORD our GoD shall call" (Acts ii. 38, 39). Now this promise is the pouring out of the SPIRIT, as St. Peter in the first part of his sermon had shown. The words of St. Peter imply then, that those who should be baptized were also to be confirmed. So, too, when Philip the evangelist went down to Samaria and baptized he could not confirm, but the Apostles sent Peter and John thither to confer that grace (Acts viii. 14-17). So, St. Paul confirmed the disciples at Ephesus (Acts xix. 6), a gift to which he repeatedly refers in his Epistle to the Ephesians (ch. i. 13, 14; iii. 16; iv. 4, 30). So laying on of hands is made a foundation act (Heb. vi. 2). So the anointing and sealing of the HOLY SPIRIT in 2 Cor. i. 21. There is a series of texts which derive their chief if not their full sense from this laying on of hands; the foremost places are the viii. chapter of Romans, Galatians vi. 6-8, and the references in 1 Corinthians to the body being the Temple of the HOLY GHOST. In the study of these passages comparison should also be made with the two leading prophecies, the text from Joel ii. 28, 32, and Isaiah xi. 1, 2. It is not at all necessary to bring a long array of quotations from the Fathers to prove the fact that Confirmation-the laying on of hands-was the practice of the Church from the first. It may be necessary, however, to remark that Confirmation followed baptism immediately, and for that reason is the less often alluded to in the earliest Patristic writings, since it was, as it were, bound up in baptism. With baptism and Confirmation followed the receiving the Holy Communion, and so was not dwelt upon as discursively as other rites of the Church. The ancient formulas used both laying on of hands and the unction with consecrated oil. The laying on of hands was with the words, "Almighty Father of our LORD JESUS CHRIST, who hast regenerated Thy servants by water and the HOLY GHOST, who hast given them remission of all their sins, do Thou, O LORD, send upon them the HOLY GHOST, Thy Comforter; and give them the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and grace,

the spirit of knowledge and true godliness. Fill them with the spirit of the fear of GOD, in the name of our LORD JESUS CHRIST, with whom Thou livest and reignest ever GOD with the HOLY GHOST for ever and

ever. Amen." Then the Bishop signed them on the forehead with the chrism, saying, "The sign of CHRIST to eternal life. Amen." (The Gelasian Sacramentary, c. 500.) This form, as we see, is directly on the same line as our own service, with the one important omission of the chrism.

In our office the versicles are from the ancient Salisbury use. The words which accompany the act of the laying on of hands are drawn from several sentences of Holy Scripture. The Collect was framed after the pattern of one by Hermann, Archbishop of Cologne (1545 A.D.). The rubric on the admission of those ready and desirous of being confirmed to the Holy Communion was taken from a Constitution by Archbishop Peckham, 1281 a.d.

The blessings of Confirmation are to be received with a prepared and devout heart, not hastily or without instruction. To this end it is usual to deliver lectures upon Confirmation as a necessity in the Christian life, and because of its Apostolic appointment in the economy of the Christian Church, upon the duties of a devout and prayerful preparation, together with instruction about the Church and her office, and the duties laid upon the person confirmed in that act. These blessings and the position of this holy rite are well set forth in a homily dated before the Reformation: "In Baptism he was born again spiritually to live, in Confirmation he is made bold to fight. There he received remission of sin, here he receiveth increase of grace. There the Spirit of GOD did make him a new man, here the same Spirit doth defend him in his dangerous conflict. There he was washed and made clean, here he is nourished and made strong. In Baptism he was chosen to be God's son and an inheritor of His heavenly kingdom; in Confirmation GOD shall give him His HOLY SPIRIT to be his mentor, to instruct him and perfect him, that he lose not by his folly that inheritance which he is called unto. In Baptism he was called and chosen to be one of GOD's soldiers, and had his white coat of innocency delivered unto him, and also his badge, which was the red cross, the instrument of His Passion set upon his forehead and other parts of his body; in Confirmation he is encouraged to fight and take the armor of GOD put upon him, which be able to bear off the fiery darts of the devil and to defend him from all harm, if he will use them in his battle and not put himself in danger of his enemies by entering the

field without them."

It is often asked, Is Confirmation as necessary to salvation as Baptism? A careful examination of the Scriptures quoted and referred to above-especially the viii. of Romans and the iv. of Ephesians-will show